I think it works fairly well.
It's let down a bit because many of the tones are quite similar. I'd imagine that the greenery growing up the brickwork stood out more in the colour version because the colours were different whereas here, they're very similar in tone.
I like the idea of including some people. It does indeed show just how large that wheel is but again, they're a bit lost because of they're blending in with the scenery.
A touch more contrast might help.
You don't say how you converted it to B/W. As I'm sure you know, there are lots of ways and most of us have a favourite but some methods work better than others.

Hope this helps.

Bren.

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Hi Bren, totally agree with you on all counts. Its something I havnt done before but felt that the wheel would be good to do in B&W. I basically shot in RAW and in lightroom just changed to B&W and then moved a few sliders contrast clarity etc. I really dont understand split toning so didnt touch them. Im trying to understand what works in B&W and what dont and why. thx for the comment

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I think you got a good angle on the wheel, Paul, and doubt if you could have avoided all the fencing and chains around it. You have been successful in conveying the size of the wheel, by including the people, and the height of the surrounding rocks.
It looks like it was a bright day, judging by the shadows, and you handled the exposure well. Some people convert to mono when they haven't managed to get the exposure right, but I don't think that's the case here. I understand why you are unsure as to which pictures lend themselves to mono or not. In this case, it would have been interesting to see the original, in order to be able to judge this better. Without seeing the original, it's hard to tell, but I think you have made an intelligent choice, simply because of the nature of your subject. It's a difficult choice, and some people even present flowers in mono, which you would think wouldn't work, but it does.
I have done a modification where I cropped a little from the left, just to make the wheel a bit less central, cloned out the black sign top right and the prominent sign bottom centre, then just used Levels to adjust the contrast, in particular making the blacks blacker. There are few whites to make whiter.
Pamela.

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